Getting on the 10am Easy Jet flight from Gatwick to Dusseldorf yesterday morning was a bit like joining the Wine Trade Sunday School outing. The pull of Prowein has been building vastly over the last few years and it was good to see so many interested parties on the plane.

Competition amongst alcohol brands in Africa is on the rise as larger companies like Diageo and Pernod Ricard continue to invest in the emerging market according to the chief executive of Distell Vineyards & Estates (DVE), Carina Gous.

Critics of Australian wine need to "stand back" and prepare themselves for what Neil McGuigan of Australian Vintage believes could be the most "exciting period" in the country's history driven by the best quality wines it has ever produced.

ProWein 2015 kicks off today in Dussdeldorf, Germany with a new looking show, different exhibition halls and over 5,500 producers, wineries and spirit companies all vying for the attention of visitors.

Downtown Düsseldorf will be the place to be this March as ProWein opens its doors to hordes of international buyers - with the Brits increasingly first in the queue. Here is what you can expect for arguably the largest drinks tradeshow in the world.

Online and convenience shopping will be the two key channels that wine companies and prducers will have to target in the future in the major global wine markets, according to new research from ProWein and Wine Intelligence.

ProWein 2015 is actively preparing visitors for changes to this year's show including new halls, the 'drinks of tomorrow' show focusing on bar trends and the 'same but different' show which will look at innovative and creative trends in the drinks trade.

The annual release of the Grosse Gewächse in September is a firm feature in the German wine calendar. Slowly, this important release date is also gaining UK currency. Grosse Gewächse are dry single-vineyard wines produced to a strict quality code by VDP members (Verband Deutscher Prädikatsweingüter). The VDP is Germany's largest and most important grouping of quality producers whose private vineyard classification recognises exceptional, historic single sites as Grosse Lagen.